EMILY DICKINSON'S GINGERBREAD

 

My novel about Emily Dickinson and her Irish maid, Miss Emily, comes out next year in the USA and Canada with Penguin. My interest in the poet stems from school, then more recently from baking* too. So here is Emily Dickinson's recipe for gingerbread which I made last week for my ex-husband's birthday 'do'. This recipe was adapted by people who work in the Dickinson Homestead Museum and I have further adapted it for Irish measurements and to make a smaller cake.

This is not a sweet cake - the lack of sugar and the dark treacle make it a little tart. But the dusting of icing sugar and the cream were a perfect addition to it. A sweet yogurt would do the same work. I used a round 8" tin.

INGREDIENTS

60g butter

55ml cream

280g flour

½ teaspoon bread soda
½ tablespoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup (125ml) treacle

METHOD

·         Preheat the oven to 180ºC ( 350ºF)

·         Grease and line a baking tin

·         Cream the butter and mix with lightly whipped cream.

·         Mix through the treacle

·         Sift dry ingredients together and combine with other ingredients.

·         The dough is stiff and needs to be pressed into the tin

·         Bake for 20 minutes.

·         Dust with icing sugar

 

*(See here for Emily's coconut cake.)